It turns out there is a field specifically for imprint statements for films, with dedicated subfields for producing company and releasing company. And it goes waaaay back, to AACR1, pre-1976.
Before 1976, AACR apparently instructed catalogers to create an imprint statement for films that is totally different than for books. And that went into MARC 261. In addition to subfields for producing and releasing company, it also has one for “contractual producer,” a category I’m not sure I understand (since I haven’t yet gotten my hands on a pre-1976 copy of AACR). The order of the subfields is different than 260, as well – for example, the place of production, release, etc. is 261 $f, as opposed to 260 $a. Additionally, the subfields for date and place are repeatable, if there are multiple producing companies, releasing companies, and contractual producers recorded (which is a total nightmare for thinking about translating that data). Here’s the actual field definition:
Yay! Thank you for this blog!